Monday, August 8, 2022

 Monday, August 8, 2022

 

   I didn't sleep that well. I dozed on and off after 3 am. Of course, I had that three-hour nap after church and another one-hour nap later in the day. I was back to feeling tired a lot. It could be because of the lost tooth. Who knows how it all impacts me?

     Before Josh returned to work, Yvette spent more time up here just visiting. I missed those causal exchanges. For the most part, her interactions with me are purpose-driven. Sue, one of my walking buddies, complains about the same thing with her kids, and she has six adult children. They only contact her when they have to tell her something. "We're doing a safari in Africa." There was no talk about thinking about it or planning it, just, "You need to know we won't be home."  I've seen people pay more attention to their cars.

       The dentist's office called and gave me an appointment for 12 noon to check my sheared-off tooth. My concern was an infection in the tooth spreading to my hip. 

  Three people were sitting at the reception desk this morning. The other day there were only two; there's usually only one. The one person is the doctor's mother-in-law. His wife is his dental assistant, and his sister-in-law is his dental hygienist. The second person at the desk the other day was Susan's oldest grandchild. She was being introduced to the working world. Susan was training her to take her place for a week while on vacation. Good luck! Susan knows the business inside out. She didn't learn all that in two weeks with the inexperience of an eighteen-year-old. 

    Today there was a third person at the front desk. I thought it was the dentist's wife. But on closer inspection, I realized it was a sister I had never met. She was the one who stayed home and did childcare for the whole family. Now the kids were going to preschool, and she was getting back into the working world.

    The dentist checked if the root was exposed. I could have told him it wasn't. If it were, I would have been groaning. He didn't think infection would be a problem for at least three months. The remaining tooth will have to be extracted. I planned to call that doctor tomorrow to make an appointment. My dentist would put in that referral today. Should I get a bridge or an implant? I knew a bridge was pointless. The surrounding teeth were vulnerable. They couldn't be counted on to support a bridge. The tooth that snapped was capped close to fifty years ago. Ah, I remember it well. It was my first cap, a problem from the beginning. I would have plenty to entertain me for the rest of the year: a tooth extraction, an implant, and a root canal. Good thing I get along with all these practitioners. Yep, there are three. I was already acquainted with all of them.

     After my appointment with the dentist, I had time to drive up the hill and pick up Elsa's skin medication at the vet before my 1:40 appointment with my primary phyaicians. The parking lot was empty when I pulled in. There was a sign saying they were closed for lunch. I Googled the vet. They didn't post their lunchtime. I figured I'd wait. It was 12:30. I was good sitting there and reading as anywhere else. They opened punctually at 1 pm. I dropped another $50. 

    Then I drove back down the hill/mountain to go to Kaiser for that appointment. I love seeing Dr. Reed. She is warm and loving. I made the appointment because Katie, my PT, was concerned about the blood flow in my legs because of my varicose and spider veins. In respect for her, I had them checked. As I suspected, I have excellent blood flow to my feet. I have the ankle pulse of a younger person. The veining is just decoration. 

    I asked her to renew my PT prescription. She said it wasn't necessary. The PT should request additional sessions when I run out. The prescription was active. I also asked for a prescription for a chiropractor. I found one who takes Kaiser's insurance and comes highly recommended. 

   I showed the doctor my missing tooth and told her of the three dental treatments I would need in the future. She prescribed three doses of amoxicillin. I had to take four pills before each treatment. 

   My blood pressure was 126/ 77, with a pulse of 78. It was good today. I told the doctor I had been taking my blood pressure daily to determine if I needed medication. She said taking nothing one day and two the next wasn't a good idea. Even if the blood pressure is low, always take one pill. Taking none sometimes creates spiking. The idea is to keep the blood pressure under control, not encourage it to zig-zag all over the place.

   I went to the pharmacy immediately to get the antibiotics. I also picked up N95 masks. I got fifty for $25. I had no idea if that was a good price, but I did know I'd have a bunch now. I checked. Amazon sells them for less. Oh, well. It was done.

  I learned  I could get dental prescriptions filled because Kaiser doesn't provide dental care. I couldn't get my optometrist's prescription filled because they have one on staff.

            I contacted my friend in England to ask her how about her experience with their socialized medical system. I sent her the email from my friend in Canada. Here is the British friend's response:

     

     Well written, Carolyn. 

     For the UK, the picture around delays is worse and got even worse because of covid and Brexit. But overall, the picture Carolyn paints is quite similar to ours. And the key point about care being available to all at no cost is absolutely true. 

       However, many years of right-wing government means privatization by stealth has been occurring, and serious underfunding back at the time of that Forbes article has weakened the system.   

        I profoundly believe in the state system and generally am very happy to pay taxes and duties to provide support for health education and care. I just wish we had a very different government. 

 

    I had a session with adolescent D.  When I asked if he had done any reading, he said yes. He had to do some for school. "How did it go?" Good!!! Wow. D is rarely positive about anything, no less reading. I was a little nervous. Was it a very easy selection? Did he just think he read it well enough to understand?

   Then we returned to the drill. What does the V stand for in VC? He answered, "Verb."  That's not great, but it is more important that he remembers what the vowel letters are than what they're called. The bigger problem is his recall of anything. The good news was he did recall the vowel letters; he reeled off. "A, E, I , O, U, and sometimes Y." I reminded him that V stood for vowel.  

     We proceeded to the next part of the exercise: he had to give me letters for the symbols: V, VC, VCe, VV, and Vr and identify the sound the vowel can make in all cases. I had to help him name a single vowel letter even after he could name them all. What is causing that problem? If he can name the vowel letters, why can't he name a single vowel letter?             

    For VC he gave the word me. I had to remind him the pattern started with the vowel letter. He still couldn't think of what to do. It didn't occur to him he had to reverse the order of the two letters.   No, this boy is not considered cognitively delayed or cognitively impaired, what used to be called mentally retarded. I don't know how he tested on an IQ test. Given that vocabulary is a big part of it, I can imagine he did very well. The depth of his learning disability is becoming more apparent. Why didn't I know about it sooner? I am considered an excellent diagnostician. This boy uses whatever intelligence he has to mask his problems. He hides. The school administered a standard evaluation. His mother didn't share it with me. She just told me he had a processing problem. 

    His mom's a problem too. I have recommended that she turn the audio file on for him every night. It doesn't look like she's doing that. Dash said he did listen to it two nights ago. It doesn't seem he does it regularly. 

    The other day I had a frightening thought. His ability to make sense of what he sees and hears is so poor I wondered if this wasn't an early stage of schizophrenia. I don't know enough about this disease, but it involves severe mental confusion. D has so much trouble making sense of the world, I wonder. 

  I watched the Netflix original, On The Verge, about four women friends on the verge of making a big change in their lives. The characters are somewhat annoying, but the script and the acting are amazing. Tonight, I watched an episode that elevated the danger to one of the characters to another level. Outside forces were threatening her. I didn't know if I would continue watching. I can't handle the stress.